Ivory Coast aims to double oil and gas production by 2020

Ivory Coast is planning to roughly double oil and gas output by 2020 and also push for foreign investment in offshore exploration, the head of state oil and gas company Petroci told journalists on Wednesday.

“Today we have around 60 blocks. We’ve awarded about 20,” Petroci’s Managing Director Ibrahima Diaby said on the sidelines of an energy conference in Ivory Coast’s capital Yamoussoukro.

“With current exploration our ambition is to reach 200,000 BOE (barrel of oil equivalent) in 2020,” he said.

That’s around twice current output levels.

According to Ousmane Doukouré, supervisor of hydrocarbon exploration and production, crude oil extraction in the first half of 2016 was at 45,000 barrels per day against 34,000 barrels in 2011. Revenue between 2011 and 2015 is estimated to be close to “four billion dollars”

The Ivory Coast government also announced that they had invested $3.3 billion to boost oil production in five years since 2015.

Ivory Coast also produces 40 percent of the world’s cocoa and is aiming to explore more oil fields but at the same time boost its agricultural production source of revenue to the government.

The country is also pushing forward with plans to begin importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) to supplement domestic supply to its gas-fired power plants.

Companies either currently conducting exploration in Ivory Coast or preparing to do so include France’s Total, U.S. firms Exxon Mobil and Anadarko, and Africa-focused Tullow Oil.